Dry County

My blog has been losing steam over the last month. This is due to a couple reasons. One, after the slew of Halloween postings I grew really tired of constantly posting and sharing, so I stepped away for a bit to recharge. The second major occurrence was I quit drinking. If you’ve read this blog or the “About” tab, then you know that alcohol was a major component of Lobo Verde.

The short version of why I quit is that I observed behaviors in myself while intoxicated I did not find pleasant. After a particularly rowdy evening, I suffered the usual hangover, but I came away not wanting to quit because of the hangover, aka “Drinker’s Remorse,” but just wanting to stop. Alcohol had ceased to be fun for me, ergo I stopped drinking altogether. While I am still consciously thinking about what is going to change, I feel no desire to take a drink. My mentality is changing to a sort of, “been there, done that,” mindset.  I’m actually content not drinking and don’t feel any desire to restart.

With that said I still homebrew. It sounds paradoxical, to brew but not drink, but I justify it like this: I have nothing against alcohol or those who drink. I chose to stop on my own accord and I don’t blame booze for anything I did because I drank too much. I also enjoy making something for other people. It would give me great pleasure to make hard cider and have others enjoy it. I don’t need it for myself.

Additionally when I still drank I came to enjoy many local craft brews. I don’t see any reason why someone else shouldn’t be able to enjoy them. I’ll still write about them here, I just won’t be able to provide a firsthand account of their taste or quality. I’ll rely on outside reviews for this, or just insist you try for yourself.

I am not sure where I’m going from here with this blog, but that will take shape over time. I do hope if you’ve come here, you enjoy what you’ve read before. I’m particularly proud of the “Beerstory” posts and I think they’d stand up against other professional blogs’ content. We’ll see what happens from here on out. Thanks for reading.

 

Quickies

20 Things to Know to Make Great Beer, pt 1 (Beer College)

Pick Punch, the personal pick maker

DIY Juice to Alcohol Kit (Think Geek)

 

Drinking Whiskey and Rye

Rye whiskey is perhaps best known to most Americans through Don McClean’s reference to it in the chorus of “American Pie.” That aside is one of the few blips on the national radar that rye made for many, many years, until homebrewing and craft brewing took off. Since then rye whiskey has slowly started to creep back. It is a unique, American whiskey style, one of the three whiskey styles America introduced (The others being Bourbon and Tennessee).

Like much of America’s drinking history, one must look at two eras, Pre-Prohibition and Post-Prohibition, to understand rye whiskey’s former glory. There was once a lot more rye whiskey before 1919 because of the age old basics of supply and demand. Pre-Prohibition grains like rye were more prevalent, and there weren’t massive corn subsidies being given to farmers. Additionally when the British would act up and put tariffs, embargoes and shortages on other spirits, like rum for example, colonials figured out a way to make booze in the New World on their own. Many different species of rye, like Sunnyside and Pennsylvania, developed unique, regional varieties of rye whiskey. This flourished after the Revolution and continued right up until the ugly, dark cloud of the 18th Amendment. Then a lot of distillers went under or tried to adapt to other kinds of manufacturing, similar to American beer brewers of that time.

After Prohibition was a different day with a different kind of country. Farm subsidies had begun and corn was king. Thus corn overtook rye in whiskey production. Alcohol production exploded, but some kinds of spirits, most especially rye whiskey, took a back seat (Hard cider suffered a similar setback as American pale lagers became the go-to beverage for most Americans).

Rye dwindled to but a handful of distillers, notably Old Overholt. The recent decade saw its slow, gradual return to consciousness. Wild Turkey and Jim Beam offer rye varieties, for example. What makes it rye whiskey? Quite simply, this (From Title 27 of Federal Regs):

(1)(i) ``Bourbon whisky'', ``rye whisky'', ``wheat whisky'', ``malt
whisky'', or ``rye malt whisky'' is whisky produced at not exceeding
160[deg] proof from a fermented mash of not less than 51 percent corn,
rye, wheat, malted barley, or malted rye grain, respectively, and stored
at not more than 125[deg] proof in charred new oak containers; and also
includes mixtures of such whiskies of the same type.

The flavor of rye whiskey is spicier and more bitter than corn whiskey. Like all whiskey whether you take it neat or on the rocks is up to you. Many people of course like to shoot it and pretend to be cowboys. Rye whiskey makes a good mixer though. Here are some examples:

Admiral – vermouth, lemon and rye

Birth Control – gin + rye

Dr. Pecker – cola, cranberry-raspberry juice and rye

Ghetto Blaster – Kahlua, Metaxa, tequila and rye

Horse Piss – 7-Up, sweet and sour and rye

Maybe you’re a whiskey drinker, you like the burn, but you want more spice? A little more kick? Then rye just might be what the doctor ordered? Perhaps you’d like to taste some American history? Again, try some rye. It’s no where near what it once was in our national liquor cabinet, but rye whiskey is back there, just waiting for you to break it out.

For more info, check these Rye Whiskey Links:

http://www.imbibemagazine.com/The-Comeback-Kid-Rye-Whiskey

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=27&PART=5&SECTION=22&TYPE=TEXT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye_whiskey

http://cocktails.about.com/od/spirits/a/about_whiskey.htm

http://www.barnonedrinks.com/drinks/by_ingredient/r/rye-whiskey-779.html

 

Scotch

The cork opens. Golden, transparent liquid flows from the dark-green glass bottle, splashing into a crystal tumbler. No ice. How about you, ice? On the rocks? Sure! Tumblers clink. A salute. A toast. Two buddies, old pals, sharing a symbol of brotherhood. They sip. The glasses are set down.

The TV glows in the background, hung on a wall. Sports. The game. We’re only three points down. We can come back. Six minutes is a long time. So what about the kids? They’re alright. Yours? My son’s obsessed with Legos and the girl is crying her eyes out over a boy. I am not ready for that to start happening. Neither am I. She’ll get over it. Oh sure, first love. I remember mine. Me too. Cindy. Angie. Hey we got the ball again!

How old is this stuff? 12 years. Not bad. Where we we when this stuff was put in the barrel? We were in college. State. You were seeing that one girl then. Ah yeah, right, Evelyn. Yep, the Women’s Studies major. Right.

Oh okay, I remember now. That was the same year we went to that St. Patty’s Day party, you know, the one where you had too much beer, and decided it would be a good idea to run up the hood of a car and see if you could clear it? What? Yeah you said you were Evel Knievel on feet. Oh my God, yes, that was so embarrassing! I was so stupid. You know I didn’t feel anything but a headache and a few bruises the next day? Wow, you took a header too. Yeah I know. To be that young again. It was like I was made of rubber.

This is good stuff, by the way. 12 year huh? Oh yeah, I love this brand. You should have the 18. I got some for my brother last year. Pricey but worth every penny. He loves it. Oh come on! That penalty was bullshit! The officiating this game is gonna screw us. Sure is.

You know, that year was the first time I ever saw a dead body? Was it? Yep. My buddy’s dad died. You remember Ed Stasiak? Hmm, I think so. Ed had the old Mustang, that one with the hood scoop and white racing stripes. We lived down the street from each other. Ah okay, Ed! Yeah, I remember when his dad passed. Yep, so I went to the wake for Ed. He wasn’t have a good time of it. His dad and him rebuilt that car together. They took it to car shows. But yeah, there was Ed, and there was his dad. Laid out. He looked like he was made of wax. He was a short guy, really energetic, but he also smoked, and… Yeah, that’ll do it to you. Right. But to see his old man down there in that box was eerie. I thought any second he’d wake up and pop out, say hello and ask where his Luckies and glass of Macallan were.

I think we got this one! What? Yeah, he just threw it, they’re going! Go! Go! He made it! We won! We got this in the bag! Nice.

Well I’m ready for another, how about you? Sure. I’m telling you if you love this 12 year you gotta try the 18. Alright, buddy.

 

Pirate’s Day Eve

Ahoy there, matey. Know thee the way to a cold tankard and warm bed?

Ahoy! Yonder beyond the horizon me eye spots a patch o’ dry land! I spy a tavern, where surely there be some bonnie lasses and ale! Full sail, ye bastards!

 

2010 Brew Haha Reviews

Photo: Nebraska Brewing Co.

Last Thursday when I was making a big to-do about the NFL season opener, I also happened to attend a beer tasting that night. It was a charitable event that I quite enjoyed, and I’d like to share some observations and reviews of what I saw and the beer I drank.

Event: Brew Haha, put on by Habitat For Humanity Omaha, sponsored by 96.1 the Brew.

Features: Beer Tasting (More below) from local craft brewers and sellers, food by local restaurants and grocery stores. Silent auction for artwork made by Univ. Nebraska-Omaha students.

There were 35 beers by about 11 different companies or organizations. I didn’t try them all, because several I had already drank before and saw no point sampling, but I did sample 7 beers that I hadn’t tried before (Note: one was actually a hard cider).

The Brew Haha staff handed all attendees a beer rating sheet listing all the beers, with boxes for Appearance, Aroma, Flavor and Overall. I graded Overall but calculating the average of the other 3 scores.

Gottberg Brew Pub (Columbus, NE) Oktoberfest: given the timing, many of the booths had fall seasonals for sampling and most had the “Oktoberfest,” moniker, including the well-known Samuel Adams take on the Oktoberfest brew. It’s got to be a uniquely American craft brewing thing, for in Germany I venture that most Germans just drink regular beer during Oktoberfest. But I digress; anyway, based on a 1-5 score, here is how I rated Gottberg’s Oktoberfest beer.

Appearance – 4/ Aroma – 3/ Flavor – 4/ Overall – 3.5

Gottberg’s Oktoberfest was above average to me and while it wasn’t bad by any means, the aroma didn’t do much for me. Appearance is kind of a hard one for me because beer is typically limited to small ranger of colors and the head to me doesn’t matter. I usually try to avoid pouring too much head and really, aesthetics is all we’re talking here so I never understood why that category mattered enough to rate. That’s what was on my score sheet though so I gave it a 4. The thing that matters, the taste, was also a 4 because I wasn’t blown away but wasn’t turned off either, and there wasn’t anything negative about the flavor. It just wasn’t special enough to rate a 5.

Lucky Bucket Brewery (LaVista, NE) Oktoberfest: Another one of several Oktoberfest brews, I was looking forward to having Lucky Bucket’s, for I really enjoy their lager and I love their sister company Solas’ vodka. I was actually pretty let down.

Appearance – 4/ Aroma – 2/ Flavor – 3/ Overall – 3

Now the thing is, aroma may have been affected by the fact I had been reusing my tasting cup and hadn’t rinsed it out to that point. Mixing beer in the same glass pretty much ruins aroma. So really take the 2 with a grain of salt, but it did pull the overall score down to a 3. That said the flavor really was, well, pretty thin and weak. Oktoberfest beers are usually pretty flavorful red ales and lagers, and Lucky Bucket’s was just totally “meh.” It didn’t rate a 2 only because it didn’t evoke a aversive reaction, just a very unimpressed one from me. Lucky Bucket is doing really well with their Lager in the Omaha metro, so its’ a shame to see they didn’t hit the mark with Oktoberfest.

New Belgium (Ft. Collins, CO) Hoptober: New Belgium is one of those craft brewers doing really well with its Fat Tire ale, and I’m a fan of their Tripel – it’s a much cheaper way to enjoy a Belgian-style, triple fermented ale and still get some of the quality. Hoptober is their entry into the fall seasonal bracket. I was over the moon for this damn thing, and that only happened once more during the whole tasting.

Appearance – 5/ Aroma – 5/ Flavor – 5/ Overall – 5

Hoptober struck me out of the blew right away for being the first beer I’ve had that was quite hoppy in aftertaste and aroma, but drank like a blonde ale: smooth at the start, hoppy at the finish. The bitterness of many hoppy ales like IPAs and such is there but in the background. It’s a subtlety I seldom encounter. I love this beer, that’s all I can say.

Woodchuck Cider (Middlebury, VT) Fall Cider: Oh man. This thing was just beautiful. If I wasn’t sticking to the 1-5 scale, I would’ve given it a 6 for flavor.

Appearance – 5/ Aroma – 5/ Flavor – 5/ Overall – 5

This cider literally smells like fall and apple pie. You are taken to New England just by smelling it. It’s the Yankee Candle of ciders. There are spices jumping right out of this thing, and one wonders if they liberally applied the nutmeg, ginger and allspice to get this one to come out like that. If one posited the question, “What does a season taste like?” I’d hand them Woodchuck’s Fall Cider and say, “Here. This is what autumn tastes like.”

Rock Bottom Brewery (Various, chain) Red Rocks: This is an amber ale that to me looked more on the reddish side, but that could’ve been because it was overcast outside during the event. Rock Bottom is a brewpub chain, which is kind of a new thing, because while there are plenty of large restaurant chains, I haven’t encountered one that makes its own beer until Rock Bottom came along. Their food seems no different from TGI-Rubychilibee’s, and the beer basically carried the same characteristics of the food from these places: it looks and smells good, but you can taste the SYSCO all over it.

Appearance – 4/ Aroma – 5/ Flavor – 3/ Overall 4

Red Rocks was right in the “meh” category for taste. I suppose If I was at Rock Bottom eating Generic, Midwesterner-Friendly Buffalo Wings or Healthy-Looking Meat Wrap #3, I’d like to wash the goliath portions I’d be served down with this beer.

Tallgrass (Manhattan, KS) IPA: Tallgrass needs no introduction here. I wrote a review on them and they sent me free beer. I thanked the booth attendee and told him to tell whomever sent the beer I am very appreciative. That said to this point I’ve never had their IPA nor their Oasis Double IPA. I tried both that night.

Appearance – 4/ Aroma – 3/ Flavor – 4/ Overall – 4.5

The IPA came in that colorful, tall boy can Tallgrass is so fond of, and even from the can it still tasted pretty damn good. Their IPA is not as bitter to me as some I’ve had, and I gave it a 5 in appearance for both the golden-hued beer itself and the green, striped can with the elephant on it. Tallgrass has some of the best-looking packaging in the craft brewing business. Anyway the flavor rated right at a 4. Again good, not above and beyond though like their Buffalo Sweat stout.

Tallgrass Oasis Double IPA: I have no basis of comparison for a “double” IPA, because I’d never had one until I tried Tallgrass’. That said I enjoyed pretty much everything about the beer except the smell.

Appearance – 4/ Aroma – 3/ Flavor – 5/ Overall – 4

Oasis comes in a yellow can, and the aroma is pretty unremarkable. It looks very golden and yellowy in your cup, and the flavor knocked me out. This is a great-tasting beer, and I mean that in the most serious way I can put it. Even from a can this beer tasted fantastic.

Final verdict: it seems that in my opinion, the out of state beers did better than the Nebraska ones; however, I must note that Nebraska Brewing Co, Upstream Brewing, Schilling Bridge and Empyrean Brewing were all there also. I didn’t review their beers because I had already tried the beers they supplied to the Brew Haha, and I already like all of them. In fact in terms of quality, Empyrean and NBC in particular easily match and even surpass some of the beers I reviewed. The important thing was that all the admission and proceeds from the auction (I won one of the artworks, as a matter of fact) went to Habitat for Humanity Omaha. Thanks to that group for what they do for the poor and for putting on the Brew Haha.

 

Adult Milkshakes

Some bars like to whip up their own, alcoholic ice cream treats. Town Talk in the Twin Cities is one of them. But here is a recipe that puts some tasty things together in one form. (Like the ginger beer post, I found this off Reddit, and it was posted by user christycreme. Go here to see the original thread.)  Ice cream, Nutella and Bourbon. Dig it.

• 3 ounces bourbon
• 2-3 tablespoons Nutella
• 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream
• splash of milk

 

Make your own Ginger Beer

Note: I took this from Reddit; it was posted by stumo. The original post is here. I’m passing this along to non-Redditors and those interested in homebrewing of all kinds.

This looks like a great idea and a way to save money. If one can brew beer, then why not make soft drinks too? Besides those Moscow mules don’t make themselves!

Ginger Beer Yeast Culture (a.k.a. “the plant” or “the bug”)

• Put one cup of lukewarm water in a jar
• add one tsp dried yeast, or if you want to go natural, 15 ORGANIC sultanas (organic because the sultanas will still have natural yeast on them)
• add one tsp sugar and one tsp dried ginger
• cover jar with cheesecloth and rubber band (or cheesecloth and screw lid if using a mason jar)
• every day, feed one tsp sugar and one tsp ginger. This is to feed the yeast and add flavour.
• after one week, you should have a healthy yeast population. Time to make ginger beer.

Ginger Beer (8 litres)

• this works best if you have a large steel bowl that holds 8 litres exactly (or about 34 cups or slightly over 2.1 gallons if you’re in the US, Burma, or Liberia)
• add 4 cups of sugar to the bowl (less if you like it less sweet, but try 4 to start)
• pour in enough warm water to cover the sugar. Stir until dissolved.
• add enough cold water to fill the container about 3/4 of the way to the top
• add 1/2 cup lemon juice, lime juice, or strained frozen pineapple concentrate
• add a splash of vanilla extract, bitters, or other flavourings that you think might work. Maybe just a tablespoon of vanilla extract the first time.
• strain the yeast culture through a cheesecloth and sieve into the water/sugar mix. KEEP THE SOLIDS (more about this later).
• fill the 8 litre bowl to the top with cold water.
• stir to make sure it’s mixed really well
• take an empty clean 2 litre PLASTIC pop bottle and stick a funnel in it
• ladle out enough of the mix to fill the bottle to about 2 or 3 inches from the top. Don’t fill it any higher than that or you’ll be sorry.
• cap the bottle loosely so that gases can escape, put somewhere cool and dark. No, not the fridge, that’s too cold. Maybe a laundry room, basement, or closet.
• stir the mix and repeat until it’s all bottled.
• take the solids that you saved earlier when you strained the yeast culture, and put half or more into the jar it was originally in. Add lukewarm water, a tsp of sugar, and a tsp of ginger. Go back to feeding it once a day for a week, then make another batch.

Now the fun begins. The yeast inside the bottles will feed on the sugar and produce alcohol and CO2. After a couple of days, you should see patches of sediment on the surface where bubbles have been floating up. At that point, you can screw the caps on tightly. This will cause the CO2 buildup to carbonate the beverage over the next day or so, depending on the health of the yeast culture.

To test if it’s carbonated enough, crack the cap a bit (or squeeze the bottle – it should be hard, in b4 that’s what she said). You should hear a hiss, then a second or two later, it will foam like crazy and spray out if you don’t close the lid fast enough (remember the 2 to 3 inch space you left at the top of the bottle? That’s why).

At this point, the bottles can be transferred to the fridge where the coldness will stop the yeast fermentation. Ginger beer is only mildly alcoholic (safe for kids), but if you want it boozier and less sweet, keep it out for a few days. But remember to crack the caps a couple of times a day to release the pressure or you might have an explosion. Seriously.

And there you have it, home-made soda pop. You will have a small amount of sediment at the bottom of your bottles, that’s normal. Enjoy!

EDIT – be sure to use plastic pop bottles when bottling, not glass ones. The plastic ones can take about 100 psi pressure, and if they pop, they don’t spray glass everywhere.

EDIT 2 – I find this recipe much less strong and spicy than the ginger beer I buy in the store, but for an even milder version, grate a heaping teaspoon of frozen ginger into the culture every day instead of using dried ginger.

Also included: a link to a Yahoo group for making ginger beer. I highly recommend you check out the Reddit link, as several Redditors pitched in tips and their own recipes.

 

Awesome Beer Commercial

There are funny beer commercials, lots of stupid ones, and then there are awesome ones like this.

 

Moscow Mule: Neither from Moscow, nor a Mule (Discuss)

Moscow Mule

Definition: buck cocktail made from vodka, ginger beer (or ale), and lime or lime juice.

Origin: 1941, by John G. Martin of GF Heublein Bros Inc., and Jack Morgan of Cock and Bull Products. Martin distributed liquor, and Morgan sold ginger beer. Morgan also owned the Cock and Bull Tavern in Los Angeles, CA, but couldn’t get all that ginger beer out of his warehouse. Together they concocted the mule, and much liquor and ginger beer was sold. The name is a play on vodka being associated with Russia (Though its arguable Polish vodka rivals Russian vodka in taste and quality). A mule cocktail, also known as a buck, is any cocktail made with ginger ale/beer and citrus juice. A moscow mule can be called a vodka buck or vodka mule.

A moscow mule is usually served in a copper mug. Sometimes I substitute a pewter one, but copper is the usual drinking cup.

Other mules/bucks: London buck (Gin and ginger ale) – also known as a Ginger Rogers, Dark and Stormy (ginger beer and rum)

More info: Wikipedia and Cocktail Times